Fundamental Truth

Stores used the Incentives of Black Friday to get People to do what they Wanted

A belated happy Thanksgiving. And a belated happy Black Friday. We say belated because Black Friday was already here by the time Friday woke from its sleepy slumber. No more waiting in line Friday morning for those stores to open. No. Today if you snooze (i.e., spend Thanksgiving with the family at home) you lose. Because it’s first come first served. Which means if you wanted to get some of those deep discounts before they run out you didn’t let anything silly like celebrating Thanksgiving with the family get in your way.

Now everyone loves a bargain. It’s why we scan the Sunday sales papers. And search online for the best price. But in the Obama ‘recovery’ there isn’t a whole lot of spending going on. As there isn’t a whole lot of employment going on. Since President Obama assumed office his policies have destroyed some 10 million jobs. And one thing about unemployed people. They definitely want a bargain. Especially if they want a good Christmas for their family during the dark times of the Obama presidency.

But there is a greater lesson Black Friday can tell us other than President Obama is a bad president. Especially in things economic. Why are stores opening on Thanksgiving? Because they’re cruel and evil forcing their workers to slave away during a holiday? No. It’s not that. In fact, some employees love working on a holiday. For they get paid more working on a holiday than they normally would. Allowing them to earn extra money to give their families a good Christmas during the dark times of the Obama presidency. As it turns out shoppers and workers alike like Black Friday. For it allows each to have more for less. And that is the great lesson of Black Friday. Getting people to do what you want by offering them something they want. Or, in other words, offering them an incentive.

Slaves working in the planter South had no desire to be slaves. Yet they were slaves. Why? There weren’t slaves in the North. Only in the South. The blacks in the north chose not to be slaves. While those in the South had no choice. The planter elite in the South, the ‘Old World’ planter aristocracy, used force. And having a larger force in Washington than they normally would have (thanks to the Three-Fifths Compromise that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for representation in Congress) they were able to use the force of government to continue to force blacks into slavery. The Southern Democrats (i.e., the ‘Old World’ planter aristocracy) were able to keep the black man enslaved until the mid 19th century. Even using the power of the federal government to override states’ rights in the North. Using the Fugitive Slave Act to force northern states to return fugitive slaves to their Southern Democrat owners. The ‘Old World’ planter aristocracy.

This is coercion. This is how you get people to do what they don’t want to do. Using the power of the federal government the Southern Democrats kept their slaves in bondage. Also, using the power of the federal government they forced those in the North who wanted to help ‘fugitive’ slaves to stay free return their slaves or else. That ‘or else’ being the full weight of the federal government coming down on them with extreme prejudice. But when the North became more populated control of the House of Representatives favored the larger populated North. Despite the Three-Fifths Compromise. Which left the Senate. And as each state got two senators how the new states entered the union mattered. For the planter elite to hold their power over the United States.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was an early attempt to put slavery onto the path of oblivion. Those in the North did not want it. The planter elite in the South did. So they compromised. Slavery could remain in the South to appease the planter elite but the compromise prohibited slavery in the new Louisiana Territory that Thomas Jefferson purchased above the 36°30′ parallel (about the southern border of Missouri). Except in the state of Missouri. Then came the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 and the idea of popular sovereignty. Throwing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 out the window. These two states were both above the 36°30′ parallel. The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 said the first people into the fledging states could choose for themselves if they would be a slave-state or a free-state. Which led to a mad rush to Kansas. And a bloody civil war there. That eventually led to the American Civil War. To settle once and for all the issue of slavery in America. Would the Southern Democrats prevail and keep the black man in bondage? Or would the Republicans free the slaves?

Obamacare is less like Black Friday and more like Slavery

Even if you flunked your history class you should know the answer to this. Abraham Lincoln and his Republicans defeated the Southern Democrats and won the American Civil War. Freeing the slaves. Of course, the Southern Democrats were not good losers. They gave us the KKK. Then the Jim Crowe Laws. The separate but equal nonsense that didn’t exist in the Republican North. The old southern aristocracy were not huge fans of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. All they wanted was privilege. They wanted the Old World in the New World. And the planter elite fought bitterly to keep that. Well, not them as much as their fellow southerners they lied to about states’ rights. Getting them (most of who were too poor to own a single slave) to fight and sacrifice their lives to maintain the institution of slavery. To maintain the privilege of the southern aristocracy.

So there you have examples of incentive and coercion. Black Friday incentivized people to hire in for seasonal jobs during the holiday season. And brought people into stores with deep discounting. Everyone got something they wanted. And so they did what the store owners wanted. People worked for them on Thanksgiving. And people came into the stores on Thanksgiving. Both of their own free will. Now contrast that to slavery. Where there was no free will. Only the coercion of the federal government. Where fear and intimidation compelled slaves to remain slaves. And their only incentive was to obey their masters to avoid physical harm.

With the Supreme Court ruling the penalty of Obamacare became a tax. Allowing the federal government to compel people to buy health insurance or suffer the consequences. A ‘tax’ that will grow in time. Buy insurance or else. With that ‘or else’ being the full force and fury of the IRS. Something most people would find more unpleasant than a colonoscopy. Without any anesthetic. No, a letter from the IRS is something no one wants to see in their mail. For few things will fill you with fear and dread more. This is the enforcement mechanism of Obamacare. Which they need because people otherwise wouldn’t spend more for less. Higher insurance premiums to cover things they will never need (a gay man will never need prenatal care). And sky-high deductibles that will be like having no insurance. As everything will be out of pocket until you reach that sky-high deductible. Which few people will reach unless they have a catastrophic illness or accident. This is why people are NOT signing up for Obamacare. Because Obamacare ain’t no Black Friday. Obamacare is offering nothing the people want. At prices higher than they ever had to pay for health insurance before. Leaving them with less to spend on their family. Forcing them to cut out things they once enjoyed. Which is why Obamacare will fail. Because you can’t incentivize people to make their lives worse. No, to do that you need the fearful power of the state. Just like the Southern Democrats used to maintain the institution of slavery.

Economics 101

The Requirements of Obamacare force Insurers to Cancel their Less Costly Policies

We buy health insurance to protect our financial assets in case of a catastrophic health problem. Such as a bad accident requiring costly hospitalization and rehabilitation. Or a costly disease. Like cancer or a heart attack. As bad as those things are the good news is that most people don’t suffer from these health problems. Which allows us to use insurance to protect our financial assets.

People in an insurance pool pay a small premium to pay for a potential loss. Such as a catastrophic health problem. Because not everyone in the pool will suffer from a catastrophic health problem the insurance premium can be much smaller than the cost of medical care for the few that do. A premium small enough that individuals and families can budget this amount and rest comfortably knowing that a catastrophic health problem won’t cost them their home, their kids’ college fund, their retirement savings, etc. A system that has worked well. Until we started using insurance to pay for everything under the sun. Which has caused insurance premiums to soar. And Obamacare just doubles down on this trend and turns insurance into welfare.

Obamacare raises the coverage requirements for all insurance policies. To a ridiculous extent. For example, couples whose children are grown adults still need pediatric coverage. Obamacare requires a lot of standard coverage like this that is virtually impossible for some people to use. Thus greatly raising insurance premiums. In our example our fictitious insurance pool contains 10,000 individuals and 10,000 families. To include everything the Obama administration wants to include raises individual premiums 240%. And family premiums 257%. Which causes a problem with President Obama’s promise to the American people. That thing about keeping your current insurance if you like your current insurance. As insurers have no choice but to cancel their less costly policies.

The Affordable Care Act makes Premiums Unaffordable by Requiring Insurers to Cover More

That promise was, of course, a lie. Because you can’t buy more for less money. You just can’t get more for less. So if the policies cover more they cost more. If they cover a lot more they cost a lot more. Well, that creates a bit of a problem for the optics of the Affordable Care Act. When you make the existing health care system ‘affordable’ you really can’t raise the cost of insurance by over 200%. Even if you are giving more insurance coverage. Because if it’s just too expensive people won’t have the money available to pay for it. So they brought the premiums down from what they would need to be to do what they want them to do. To something a little more affordable. Like this.

Which brings the increases to 80% for an individual policy. And 129% for a family policy. These are still steep price hikes. But with the more these policies cover and subsidies for those who need them they are an easier sell. Of course, there is another problem. Selling these policies at these lower prices won’t bring as much money into the insurance pool. Which will limit what this pool can pay for. Leading to rationing. And longer waiting times. As health care providers will have to tell patients ‘no’ because the insurer denied the treatment or procedure. Which sort of defeats the purpose of Obamacare. Affordable health care for everyone.

So what to do? To cover everything under the sun requires hefty premiums. But hefty premiums are not affordable. There appears to be a paradox here. And that’s because there is. Because you can’t get more for less. But Obamacare has a workaround for this paradox. At least for the optics of Obamacare.

The Ultimate Goal of Obamacare may be to Fail to Clear the Way for Single-Payer National Health Care

There’s another part of health insurance. The deductible. The out-of-pocket portion of our health care expenses. When insurance was truly insurance we paid for our routine health care expenses out-of-pocket. We took our kids to the doctor for their vaccinations and the doctor billed us. Then we paid the bill. Using our insurance only for those catastrophic health problems that we couldn’t plan for. Or budget for. And it’s the deductible that makes Obamacare look more affordable than it is. By making their deductible far exceed their premium. So a lot of people pay into the pool but never collect from it.

In this example we look at some claims. The money the insurance pool pays out. The above numbers are net of the deductible. So the annual claim per individual and family is money from the pool paying their bills. Most people get little. While the breakout with the fewest members have a catastrophic health care problem. The total claims for this pool for both individuals and families come to $159,750,000. While premiums total only $123 million at our adjusted premiums. That’s a $36,750,000 shortfall. Well, insurers can’t pay out more than they collect so they need to find another $36 million or so without making this affordable health insurance appear unaffordable. So where can we find another $36 million?

By raising the deductible, of course. If we raise the deductible for both individuals and families to $7,500 those claims at $7,500 or less are out-of-pocket. They don’t come from the insurance pool. If we add up the claims that become out-of-pocket they total $57,250,000. More than enough to cover the shortfall. As well as provide subsidies for the poor. And all those new government jobs to run Obamacare. With these higher deductibles AND higher premiums people will be paying far more for their health care than they did before. Perhaps more than they can afford. Thus making the Affordable Care Act unaffordable. Which may be the ultimate goal of Obamacare. To fail. So the government can blame greedy insurers who the people will hate even more. And setting the stage to get the people to acquiesce to a single-payer system. Or national health care. Which the left wanted all along.